“‘True Colors’ gay-rights tour set for June

Cyndi Lauper, Erasure, others will be in Dallas on June 23

Cyndi Lauper

NEW YORK For some people, Cyndi Lauper’s classic “True Colors” is just another love song. But as Lauper learned from reading fans’ letters, for others, the song’s lyrics about letting “your true colors shine through” had a much deeper meaning.

“A lot of people were saying that when it came out [in 1986] they were teenagers and they were coming out,” says Lauper, a longtime gay rights supporter. “They were disowned by their family and their friends and their jobs got all messed up and they were totally alone, and suicidal, and then they heard “‘True Colors’ and it made them feel hopeful.”

So it is fitting that Lauper, 53, is one of the headliners on the new “True Colors” tour, which will hit major cities across the United States to promote gay rights. Other performers for the 15-city event, which kicks off in Las Vegas on June 8 and ends in Los Angeles on June 30, are Deborah Harry, Erasure and Margaret Cho.

The tour will be in Dallas on June 23 at the Smirnoff Music Center. The Dallas show will include Erasure and The Dresden Dolls as well as Lauper, Cho and Harry.

“This tour is basically gonna be five hours of some of my favorite bands and me, and Margaret Cho making us laugh, and while we’re touring, we’re going to be raising awareness,” Lauper told The Associated Press on Friday, March 9. “I think people don’t know what’s going on, that’s all.”

Besides headliners like Lauper and Harry, the show will have guest artists such as Rufus Wainwright in the various cities it hits. “Every time I talk to a band, they’re like, “‘I want to go!”‘ says Lauper with a laugh.

The tour, sponsored by Logo, the MTV Networks channel targeting gay audiences, will provide information to fans who attend, as well as purple wristbands with the slogan “Erase Hate” from the Matthew Shepard organization, named for a gay youth killed in an apparent hate crime. A dollar from every ticket sold will be earmarked for the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.

Lauper believes more Americans would be supportive of equal rights for gays if they knew the discrimination they faced.

“You shouldn’t have to be treated badly because of your sexual orientation. Come on, we don’t live in a dictatorship. This is supposed to be America, the home of the free and the brave,” she says. “It can’t be free for some and not for others.”

MTV Networks is a unit of media company Viacom Inc. For ticket information, go online to www.truecolorstour.com.